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BY LYNN MACNICOL

bout 200 women — and a few

men — attended a statewide

women’s forum on April 3.
The day-long conference in Randolph
included workshops on the effects of
global trade on women’s lives, human
trafficking, health and economic
issues, harassment in schools, and a
course in government 101.

A panel of Vermont speakers
— Lynn Vera (longtime Burlington les-
bian feminist activist), Ellen Kahler
(past director of the Peace and Justice
Center), Jeri Martinez (domestic vio-
lence educator), Marjorie Power
(Older Women’s League), Peggy Luhrs
(lesbian activist, past director of
Burlington Women’s Council), and
Rachel Atkins (Planned Parenthood of
Northern New England) — offered
inspiring remarks about the tremen-
dous changes women have made in
just a few decades, and about the
importance of continuing to work for
equality and fi'eedom.

Keynote speaker Gloria
Feldt, national president of Planned
Parenthood, noted that Vermont is one
of the strongest pro-choice states and
urged women to attend the March for
Women’s Lives in Washington April
25. She said funding for reproductive
health care is half what it was 20 years
ago, and many low-income women
lack adequate health care. Feldt is the
author of War on Choice, coming out
this year.

Rep. Bernie Sanders, who
sponsored the forum, noted the Bush
administration’s global “gag rule”
which denies women receiving U.S.
medical assistance the right to receive
counseling about abortions, adding that

~ women cannot receive abortions in

U.S. military installations. .

I attended two out of man
workshop options: human trafiicking
and breast cancer.

Human haflicking

Amy Boldosser, of the Freedom
Network to Empower Trafficked and
Enslaved Persons, led a workshop
about the prevalence of human traf-
ticking and what is being done to stop
it. In 2000. trafficking of persons was

   
 
    
  
   

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' defined for the first time by the UN

Crime Commission and in the U.S.
Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Trafficking occurs in nearly
every part of the world and involves
the coercion of women, children and
men to perform labor for the benefit of
traffickers. While the Mafia is
involved in trafficking, others are as
well, including family and friends of '
the victims, business owners, and
diplomats. "

The victims work in most
types of labor — not just prostitution or
domestics — and come from all back-
grounds. Many are poor or may be "
fleeing from social unrest or natural
disasters. They fall prey to traffickers
who promise to help them migrate but
then take their documents and force
them to work to pay off huge debts for
their “assistance.”

Under U.S. law, trafficking
victims receive the same benefits .as
refugees. However, while 5,000 visas
are available- every year" to assist traf-
ficked persons, only 373 victims have
completed the lengthy process,

. Boldosser said.

A recent article in The
Economist suggests that the U.S. is
sofi on trafficking in countries that
cooperate with this country in the “war
on terrorism.”

Boldosser said the media
misleads the public into believing that
all trafficking is for the sex trade.
While that is true for about 30 percent
of its victims, the remaining 70 percent
are used for labor.

There have been rumors of
males being sold for homosexual sex,
and in one case a boy was kidnapped
to be used for sex, she said. Boldosser
said young gays and lesbians may be
at greater risk of trafficking when they
try to enter the U.S., where gender
minorities have rights they don’t have
in their own countries.

Breast Cancer and the
Environment

Very little money is going into
researching the prevention of breast
cancer, agreed a panel of speakers —
including Alyssa Schueren of the
Vermont Toxics Action Center, Craig
Wells ofthe Silent Spring Institute,
state Rep. Kinny Connell of Warren.

breast cancer survivor Linda Revell of
the Vermont Cancer Network, and
moderator Ben Davis of Vermont
Public Interest Research Group — while
most funding goes to treatment.

Activists and scientists aim ’
to change that as they search for caus-
es of the rapidly increasing incidence ' l
of breast cancer. Suspected arc'chemi- ,
cal compounds that mimic the hor-
mone estrogen, found in commonly
used‘ pesticides, shampoo, deodorant,
sunscreen. flame retardants, plastics,
birth control pills and hormone
replacement therapy. Radiation is also
a probable cause.

Lesbians get cancer more
ofien than heterosexual women
because lower rates of childbirth and
nursing are risk factors. Lesbians also
smoke cigarettes at a higher rate,
increasing their risk.

Cape Cod has one of the
highest breast cancer rates in the nation.
The gay mecca of Provincetown has
high rates as well, although not as high
as other areas on the Cape. Pesticide use
on cranberry bogs could be one culprit, .
but scientists are also examining drink- l
ing water and sampling indoor and out-
door air.

Activists founded the Silent
Spring Institute in 1994 — named alter
Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent
Spring, which warned of pesticide use —
to study the causes of breast cancer on
Cape Cod. Carson died of breast cancer
in 1964. At that time one in 20 women
got breast cancer. Today one in 7
women gets the potentially fatal disease.

Vemiont also has a high rate
of breast cancer, which one participant
suggested could be related to the _
state’s nuclear power plant, Vermont
Yankee. Linda Revell, president of
Vermont Cancer Network, wasn’t sure.
She said of herself and 30 other
Vermont women she knows who had
breast cancer, all but three grew up in
industrial areas in other states. V

For more information see
wwwfleedomnerworkusa. org or
www.acfhhsgov/traflicking, or call the
trafficking hotline at I-888-3 73 7888.
About breast cancer, see www.si/ent
spriizgorg or www.loxicsactionorg.

Lynn MacNicol lives in Burlington,